Trump DOJ aims to denaturalize these 12 individuals tied to terrorist groups, other alleged crimes



President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice on Friday announced denaturalization actions against a dozen individuals, including those accused of providing material support to terrorist groups.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the United States attorney for the District of Arizona filed a civil denaturalization complaint on Friday against Ali Yousif Ahmed, a 48-year-old man from Iraq who entered the U.S. in 2009 based on a claim that he and his family were attacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists.

'If you're going to come and become a citizen in this country, but you're going to do it by fraud ... you should be worried.'

The DOJ stated that in 2019, the Republic of Iraq requested the U.S. extradite Yousif Ahmed, claiming that he was an Al-Qaeda leader who had murdered two Iraqi police officers in 2006. A U.S. investigation into Yousif Ahmed uncovered that he had allegedly illegally obtained his naturalization in 2015 by lying under oath about his criminal and family history.

The DOJ is also moving to denaturalize Oscar Alberto Pelaez, a 75-year-old from Colombia, arguing that he lacks good moral character and that he lied to immigration authorities. The department stated that Alberto Pelaez, a Colombian Roman Catholic priest, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a child on multiple occasions from 1998 to 2000. The victim was 14 to 17 years old at the time of the abuse.

Alberto Pelaez was convicted of 13 counts of sexual assault against a child, including two counts of oral copulation with a person under 18 years of age, and two counts of sodomy of a person under 18 years of age. The DOJ claimed that Alberto Pelaez lied about his crimes in his naturalization application.

Khalid Ouazzani, a 48-year-old from Morocco, may lose his U.S. citizenship after the DOJ claimed he falsely swore to the principles of the Constitution. The department stated that Ouazzani planned ways to support Al-Qaeda, alongside two other men who were convicted of attempting to bomb the New York Stock Exchange. In 2010, Ouazzani pleaded guilty to bank fraud, money laundering, and providing material support to the terrorist group.

The DOJ aims to denaturalize Salah Osman Ahmed, a 43-year-old from Somalia, who was naturalized in 2007. However, the department claims that he, too, was not committed to the principles of the U.S. Constitution. Osman Ahmed pleaded guilty in 2009 to providing material support to terrorists after he allegedly traveled to Somalia to kill Ethiopians and join al-Shabaab. He was accused of concealing or willfully misrepresenting material facts to procure his naturalization.

Baboucarr Mboob, a 58-year-old from Gambia who entered the U.S. in 2002, may lose his U.S. citizenship after the DOJ claimed that in 1994 he committed war crimes and acts of persecution. Mboob, who previously served as a military police officer in the Gambian army, admitted to participating in the execution of six officers who were accused of plotting a counter-coup against the then-president. The DOJ claimed that Mboob concealed his involvement throughout his immigration and naturalization proceedings.

RELATED: The case for denaturalization

DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images

The DOJ is seeking to revoke the citizenship of Kevin Robin Suarez, a 31-year-old from Bolivia, who was accused of lacking good moral character, falsely testifying under oath, and misrepresenting and concealing material facts in determining his naturalization eligibility.

Robin Suarez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause false statements to become a federally licensed firearms dealer after he was accused of soliciting straw purchasers to buy firearms on his behalf to export those weapons to Bolivia and other Latin American countries.

“These firearms were part of a larger network of gun trafficking from South Florida to Bolivia by Bolivian nationals in the United States. Once in Bolivia, the guns were often sent to drug trafficking organizations in Brazil, Paraguay, and Peru, fueling drug violence there,” the DOJ wrote.

Abduvosit Razikov, a 46-year-old from Uzbekistan, was accused of engaging in three sham marriages to obtain immigration benefits for himself and others. In 2005, he allegedly entered into a fraudulent marriage with a U.S. citizen to obtain his permanent residency. According to the DOJ, he paid another U.S. citizen in 2007 to marry his “actual romantic partner,” also from Uzbekistan.

Razikov divorced his American wife in 2010 and was naturalized in 2012. He then allegedly married another woman from Uzbekistan, not his romantic partner, so that she could enter the U.S. The DOJ claims that Razikov did not lawfully acquire permanent residency and thus could not become a U.S. citizen. He was accused of giving false testimony and obtaining his naturalization by concealment or willful misrepresentation of material facts.

The DOJ filed denaturalization actions against Abdallah Osman Sheikh, a 28-year-old from Kenya residing in Fairdale, Kentucky. In 2019, Sheikh, who was later naturalized based on his military service in the Marines, was accused of possessing indecent images of two minors and posting one of those images on his social media. He allegedly hid those crimes from the government throughout his naturalization proceedings. Further, the DOJ claimed that Sheikh received an other-than-honorable discharge from the Marines for misconduct.

Debashis Ghosh, a 62-year-old from India, was accused of willfully misrepresenting his alleged criminal history during his naturalization process. The DOJ claimed that Ghosh defrauded investors of $2.5 million intended for the construction of an aircraft maintenance facility. During his 2012 naturalization application and interview, Ghosh allegedly falsely claimed that he had never committed a crime for which he had not been arrested.

RELATED: Denaturalizing and deporting terrorists should not be complicated

J. David Ake/Getty Images

The DOJ is attempting to denaturalize Pin He, a 53-year-old from China, who was ordered removed from the U.S. in 1992 under the name Chun Di He. He changed his name to apply for an immigration benefit the following year. He was granted permanent residency in 2007 and naturalized in 2013 under his new identity. The DOJ claimed that He did not disclose his prior removal order.

George Oyakhire, a 66-year-old from Nigeria, was similarly accused of naturalizing with a different identity. Oyakhire entered the U.S. in 1986 with a visa under his real name. In 1988, he obtained temporary resident status under a false name, Oliver Bennett Oyakhire, and date of birth. His naturalization was approved in 1996 under his false identity.

Adeyeye Ariyo Akambi, a 65-year-old from Nigeria, was the final person on the DOJ’s denaturalization list. Ariyo Akambi was allegedly previously removed from the U.S. in 2000 under a different identity.

“Because Mr. Akambi obtained his citizenship after concealing these facts and misrepresented his eligibility for citizenship, the United States is seeking to revoke his certificate of naturalization,” the DOJ wrote.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told CBS News on Wednesday that the Trump administration is ramping up efforts to denaturalize foreign-born individuals who should not have become U.S. citizens.

"If you're going to come and become a citizen in this country, but you're going to do it by fraud, you're going to do it in a way that's illegal, you should be worried," Blanche stated.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Chinese fraudster convicted for ripping off Americans with bogus COVID tests



Jia Bei Zhu, the Chinese national linked both to the secret California biolab discovered in 2022 and the biolab discovered earlier this year in Las Vegas, is finally reaping the whirlwind for his crimes on American soil.

The Justice Department announced on Wednesday that a jury has convicted Zhu on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of substantive wire fraud, two counts of distributing adulterated and misbranded medical devices, and one count of making a false statement to the Food and Drug Administration.

'He flouted the lawful authority of the FDA and deliberately deceived the public.'

While he now faces the possibility of decades in prison, Zhu has evaded justice for at least a decade.

The British Columbia Supreme Court determined in 2016 that Zhu and several companies he controlled had conspired to steal confidential technology from a Colorado-based company, partly with the intention to sell said technology in China.

Facing over $270 million in damages and prison time, the IP-stealing fraudster fled Canada in 2015, then entered the United States — "unlawfully," according to the DOJ — where he continued to rip off Americans.

The jury in the Chinaman's latest trial was presented with evidence that, once stateside, Zhu founded a company in California with his romantic partner, Zhaoyan Wang, called Universal Meditech Inc.

With the help of employees hired through the Fresno County Economic Development Corporation who "would not ask any questions," Zhu, Wang, and others at UMI conspired from August 2020 through March 2023 to import faulty COVID tests from China — the origin of the disease — then sell those faulty tests to Americans based on numerous false representations, prosecutors claimed.

RELATED: CCP BLOCKS $2 billion American takeover of Chinese-founded AI company

Las Vegas Metro Police Department footage screenshots

They falsely claimed that the tests were authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, were made in the U.S., were made in connection with a certified medical lab, and worked.

Zhu managed to rake in nearly $4 million selling over 1 million malfunctioning COVID tests.

According to the DOJ, Wang was charged in connection with the scheme but evaded arrest by fleeing to China.

Zhu's scheme first came to light when one of his victims filed a civil lawsuit in 2022, prompting an inspection of UMI's Fresno facility — an inspection which the DOJ said not only demonstrated UMI's inability to properly manufacture COVID tests but proved the company to be nothing more than "an unsanitary warehouse that was far below established quality standards for facilities that house medical devices."

Once again, Zhu attempted to escape justice, moving UMI from Fresno to Reedley and changing its name to Prestige Biotech Inc.

When the FDA began investigating him, Zhu lied about his immigration status and identity, claiming to be Qiang "David" He. Zhu also said he knew nothing about UMI or PBI.

The discovery of Zhu's Reedley biolab in early 2023 ushered in the end of the Chinaman's years-long grift.

Months after a code enforcement officer noticed a hose sticking out of a supposedly vacant warehouse in the heart of Reedley — a clear violation of the municipality's building code — local officials executed a search warrant on March 16, 2023.

Inside, they found lab equipment, trace narcotics, roughly 1,000 mice that were genetically engineered to mimic the human immune system, and faulty medical devices subject to an FDA health embargo along with "blood, tissue, and other bodily fluid samples and serums; and thousands of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material," according to a congressional report.

Zhu was arrested on Oct. 19, 2023.

While in custody, police raided another one of the Chinese national's properties, this time a Las Vegas residence managed by an Israeli national currently in the U.S. on an E-2 visa. The FBI said more lab equipment was discovered at the scene, including a "bio-safety hood, a bio-safety sticker, a centrifuge, multiple refrigerators, red-brown unknown liquids in gallon-sized containers, and refrigerated vials with unknown liquids."

Eric Grant, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, said that the verdict in Zhu's case "holds the defendant accountable for actions that exploited a public health crisis for his own gain. He flouted the lawful authority of the FDA and deliberately deceived the public by repackaging low-quality, foreign-made test kits at a time when accuracy and reliability were critical."

Grant added, "This conduct, tied to the unlawful operations uncovered at the Reedley laboratory, put lives at risk."

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has confirmed that Zhu is a Chinese citizen associated with communist regime-linked companies as well as with Chinese military-civil fusion entities.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Department of Justice Urged To Investigate Georgetown's Contract With Qatari Government Following Free Beacon Report

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on Thursday called on the Department of Justice to investigate Georgetown University in the wake of a Washington Free Beacon report on a contract requiring that Georgetown consult with a Qatari government group when selecting "themes and speakers" for events in Washington, D.C.

The post Department of Justice Urged To Investigate Georgetown's Contract With Qatari Government Following Free Beacon Report appeared first on .

DOJ sues Denver over its ongoing war against the 2nd Amendment — and local Democrats aren't pleased



Denver has for decades impinged upon the Second Amendment rights of its residents.

Since 1989, the city has had a so-called "assault weapons" law on the books that now prohibits the carriage, storage, possession, manufacture, and sale of "any semiautomatic pistol or centerfire rifle, either of which have a fixed or detachable magazine with a capacity of more than fifteen rounds" and "any semiautomatic shotgun with a folding stock or a magazine capacity of more than six rounds."

'The Constitution is not a suggestion.'

According to Denver's Code of Ordinances, the city council that initially advanced the ban determined that the use of "assault weapons poses a threat to the health, safety and security of all citizens" in the city and that restrictions on law-abiding Americans' access to such firearms were both "reasonable and necessary."

The Trump Justice Department demanded in a letter last week that the city repeal the ban, underscoring that it is unconstitutional. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division said that failure to comply would likely trigger a lawsuit.

On Monday, the city's attorney, Miko Brown, wrote back to Dhillon, calling the request "baseless, irresponsible, and a clear overreach of the federal government's power."

RELATED: Why the Supreme Court nuked Colorado’s 'Must Stay Gay' law (and what to expect next)

Minh Connors/Washington Post/Getty Images

Democrat Denver Mayor Mike Johnston chimed in, characterizing the DOJ's effort to restore Denverites' rights as intimidation and claiming that the ban "has stood for 37 years because it works, it saves lives, and it reflects the values of our community."

Democrat Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez joined the chorus of fearmongerers, stating both that the Trump administration was trying to deprive students and families of critical "protections" and that "assault weapons take lives — that's what they're made for."

On Tuesday, the DOJ filed a lawsuit with the stated intention of vindicating "the rights of Denver citizens whose rights have been — and are continuing to be — violated."

"The Constitution is not a suggestion and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right," acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. "Denver's ban on commonly owned semi-automatic rifles directly violates the right to bear arms."

Citing the standard for applying the Second Amendment outlined in the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, the government's complaint asserts that the "Ordinance is presumptively unconstitutional" and that the City of Denver "will not be able to rebut this presumption."

After noting that the Second Amendment protects firearms "typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes that are in 'common use' today" — a protection affirmed by the Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller — the complaint explains that there are at least 28 million AR-style semiautomatic rifles presently in circulation and tens of millions of law-abiding AR-style-rifle owners in the country.

In addition to the numerousness and common use of such weapons, the DOJ's complaint shreds the notion that AR-15-type rifles are the go-to choice for criminals.

When making this point, the DOJ highlighted FBI data showing that whereas there were 364 homicides known to have been committed with rifles of any type in 2019, 6,368 homicides were committed with handguns, 1,476 were committed with knives or other cutting instruments, 600 were committed with hands and feet, and 397 were committed with blunt objects.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division stated, "Law-abiding Americans, regardless of what city or state they reside in, should not have to live under threat of criminal sanction just for exercising their Second Amendment right to possess arms which are owned by tens of millions of their fellow citizens."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Exclusive: Trump administration claims another scalp in war on fraud — this time, a Texas pill-pusher



Scores of individuals were indicted during the first Trump administration for their involvement in a network of "pill mill" clinics — operations that diverted millions of oxycodone, hydrocodone, and carisoprodol pills with the help of health care professionals evidently eager to endanger public health to make a quick buck.

The current administration, which has significantly ramped up its fraud crackdown, has delivered one of the participants in this scheme to justice.

The Justice Department revealed in an exclusive to Blaze News on Monday that three days earlier, a federal jury in the Southern District of Texas convicted Barbara Marino — a 65-year-old resident of Tomball who served as the sole prescribing physician at Angels Clinica in Houston — of one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and four counts of distributing a controlled substance.

Marino faces more than 20 years in prison for each of the five counts.

"Medical physicians who exploit their prescribing authority for profit over patient care break an inherent trust with their patients, and we will hold them accountable," said Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the DOJ's National Fraud Enforcement Division in a statement. "The Department of Justice remains committed to protecting the public from dangerous and unlawful distribution of controlled substances, especially when the drug dealer is a doctor."

Marino, who was first licensed to practice medicine in the Lone Star State in 1990, was found to have unlawfully distributed over 1 million pills of opioids and other controlled substances through the strip-mall clinic in Houston where her practice was based.

Angels Clinica in Houston has since permanently closed. Angels Medical, which is linked to the now-defunct Houston clinic, did not immediately respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

RELATED: James Comey indictment goes beyond infamous '86 47' seashell post, covers full 'body of evidence,' Blanche says

John Moore/Getty Images

The original indictment against Marino said that of the roughly 1.06 million controlled-substance pills for which she issued prescriptions between September 2018 and August 2019, 518,000 were hydrocodone pills, 65,000 were oxycodone pills, and approximately 416,000 were carisoprodol pills.

Many of the purported patients who obtained prescriptions from Marino's cash-only clinic were effectively drug mules sent her way by traffickers who subsequently peddled the drugs on the street, according to court documents and evidence presented at trial.

This grift proved lucrative.

The Justice Department claimed that Marino — who is supposedly an addiction specialist — received over $400,000 from Angels Clinica's owners both for writing prescriptions that lacked a legitimate medical purpose and for doing so outside the usual course of professional practice.

Evidence shown at trial suggested that Marino rarely if ever encountered a patient for whom she wouldn't prescribe dangerous and addictive drugs.

In one instance, she reportedly prescribed what the DOJ characterized as a "dangerous cocktail of hydrocodone and carisoprodol" — apparently one ingredient short of the so-called "Houston Cocktail" — to a pregnant woman in her third trimester. The woman's OB-GYN testified that the drugs had threatened the well-being of both the mother and her unborn child.

The DOJ highlighted another case exemplifying Marino's willingness to give practically anyone hard drugs, specifically a mentally compromised patient — a diagnosed bipolar schizophrenic who suffered from the chronic delusion that he was President Richard Nixon — to whom she allegedly prescribed her dangerous cocktail on at least three occasions.

Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Administrator Cheri Oz, whose agency investigated this case, stated, "Patients put their trust and their lives into the hands of our medical and health care professionals.

"The highly addictive, dangerous misused drugs in this case — oxycodone and hydrocodone — are meant to treat pain, not cause it," continued Oz. "DEA remains relentless in our pursuit of those who poison our communities and exploit our health care system, all to line their own pockets with the profit from others' pain."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

'Nobody's rights are safe': DOJ counsel gives Allie Beth Stuckey EXCLUSIVE view of Biden regime's anti-Christian campaign



Christians were told in the first century that the world that hated and persecuted their Savior would similarly hate and persecute them. This divine counsel certainly holds up two millennia later.

'The Biden administration was willing to tolerate Christians up to a point.'

According to the watchdog group Open Doors, over 315 million Christians today face very high or extreme persecution, with thousands murdered yearly over their faith. While the top 10 worst countries for Christians are all in Africa, Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, Christians are also routinely subjected to violent attacks, discrimination, and state suppression in purportedly civilized Western nations.

In America, for instance, hostility toward Christians, their faith, and their institutions came to a head during the Biden administration, which not only turned a blind eye to a rash of anti-Christian attacks but adopted policies that formalized the underlying animus.

Seeking to "end the anti-Christian weaponization of government and unlawful conduct targeting Christians" and rectify the wrongs committed by his predecessor's government, President Donald Trump established the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias last year.

Camille Varone, senior counsel at the Justice Department, gave Allie Beth Stuckey, host of BlazeTV's "Relatable," an exclusive look this week at the culmination of the task force's efforts to date: a damning report detailing both the anti-Christian bias propagated by the federal government during the Biden administration and what the Trump administration has done and is doing to protect Americans' religious liberties.

"The Biden administration used transgenderism as an excuse, as a justification, for discriminating against Christian doctors, medical facilities, against churches, against Catholic schools, specifically," Stuckey said in summary. "And then, of course, there was the targeting of the pro-lifers. Even within the DOJ, there was an attitude of anti-Christian discrimination and the feeling that Christians really didn't count as a protected class, and that manifested itself in very real, illegal prejudice against Christians."

RELATED: The anti-Christian myth of First Amendment 'neutrality'

Samuel Corum/Getty Images

"What we found is that across the board, the Biden administration was willing to tolerate Christians up to a point, and that was when they held their views privately or in the four walls of their churches," Varone told Stuckey.

"When Christians were trying to live out their faith — to see where the Bible, where religious tradition should inform how they actually, you know, went to school, went to work — that's where they ran into policy issues."

Varone — drawing from the findings of the 200-page written report, which is accompanied by over 300 pages of receipts plus thousands of footnotes — highlighted in her conversation with Stuckey numerous anti-Christian governmental abuses and policies advanced under President Joe Biden, who professes to be Catholic, including how Biden's

  • DOJ pursued aggressive prosecutions against nonviolent, pro-life Christian demonstrators under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act while taking a markedly less enthusiastic approach to holding leftists, such as members of Jane's Revenge, responsible for attacks against pregnancy resource centers;
  • Internal Revenue Service apparently targeted churches and Christian organizations whose religious values aligned with conservative political views but did not similarly hound churches where progressive views and Democratic causes were championed;
  • administration, working off a liberal reading of the Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, sought to mandate the adoption of its views on sexual preferences and gender ideology; and
  • administration ran roughshod over "sincere religious objections" to the COVID-19 vaccines.
The report also details how Biden's
  • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission implemented a rule requiring employers — including Christian organizations — to accommodate workers' efforts to abort their unborn children;
  • FBI investigated, surveilled, and stigmatized law-abiding traditional Catholics, in part due to bogus claims from the scandal-plagued Southern Poverty Law Center; and
  • Department of Health and Human Services attempted to bar Christian providers and would-be parents who hold biblical and scientifically grounded views about sex and marriage from the foster-care system.

The task force reached the conclusion that "in its zealous pursuit of its preferred policies and constituents, the Biden administration engaged in anti-Christian bias, seeking to limit Christians’ ability to act in concert with their sincerely held beliefs in their homes, in the workplace, and in the public square. At times, it went still further, leading Christians to reportedly choose between their beliefs and compliance with federal law."

Stuckey asserted that "this should really disturb everyone" regardless of whether they're a Christian.

Varone agreed, reiterating, "What we found here really should disturb everyone who holds religious beliefs because if the government can do that against a majority group, nobody's rights are safe under that kind of system."

"No American should live in fear that the federal government will punish them for their faith," acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, chair of the task force, said in a statement.

"As our report lays out, the Biden administration’s actions devastated the lives of many Christian Americans," continued Blanche. "That devastation ended with President Trump. The Department of Justice will continue to expose bad actors who targeted Christians and work tirelessly to restore religious liberty for all Americans of faith."

Stuckey expressed gratitude that people are being "aware that things like this are happening," in part because it "encourages us to know our constitutional rights, and that can only be a win."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Father, mother, daughter federally indicted for alleged assault on TPUSA reporter Savanah Hernandez



The Department of Justice revealed a federal indictment against three individuals accused of assaulting Turning Point USA reporter Savanah Hernandez during an anti-ICE protest in Minnesota.

Video footage of the April 11 incident appeared to show Paige Ostroushko, a Minnesota resident, blowing a whistle just inches from Hernandez's ear before pushing her to the ground.

'This incident isn't just about me, but about every single journalist who has been attacked while doing their job.'

After Hernandez returned to her feet, Deyanna Ostroushko, Paige's mother, confronted the reporter, claiming that Hernandez had instigated the physical altercation.

"Did you f**king hit my daughter?" Deyanna yelled in Hernandez's face, video showed.

Hernandez pushed Deyanna away and seemed to walk off to distance herself from the mob of anti-ICE protesters, according to the video.

"Stop touching me!" Hernandez shouted.

RELATED: TPUSA Frontlines reporter brutally attacked by Antifa mob tells Sara Gonzales the full story mainstream media won’t touch

Savanah Hernandez. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Chris Ostroushko, Paige's father, stepped into the chaos, approaching Hernandez and pushing her, causing her to fall onto the pavement, video showed.

Paige then appeared to go after Hernandez again, and the two got into a brief scuffle.

On Wednesday, a four-count federal indictment was unsealed by the U.S. District Court of Minnesota, charging each member of the Ostroushko family. The indictment did not name the victim.

Chris and Paige Ostroushko "did by force or by threat of force willfully injure, intimidate, and interfere with, and attempt to injure, intimidate, and interfere with the rights of another," the indictment read.

All three family members were accused of aiding and abetting the assault of the victim.

Hernandez sought medical treatment following the altercation and was told that she suffered a concussion and multiple sprains.

"I'm incredibly grateful to the FBI and DOJ for their swift response to the attack I experienced," Hernandez told Blaze News. "This incident isn't just about me, but about every single journalist who has been attacked while doing their job. Today's indictment sets an extremely important precedent for every American and is a strong message to the radical left wing that they are not allowed to violently attack people with impunity any more."

“Today, Christopher, Deyanna, and Paige Ostrouchko [sic] were indicted by a grand jury for allegedly assaulting journalist and Turning Point USA contributor Savannah [sic] Hernandez, while she was lawfully reporting on anti-ICE protests outside a federal building in St. Paul,” stated acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“Hernandez was allegedly surrounded, physically assaulted, and shoved to the ground — simply because she was identified by the defendants as a conservative journalist,” Blanche continued. “That is NOT ‘peaceful protest.’ These deplorable actions as charged in the indictment will not be tolerated in America, and this Department of Justice will always punish unhinged acts of political violence.”

RELATED: ‘The threats are real’: Glenn Beck issues urgent call for courage as violence against conservatives escalates

Savanah Hernandez. James Devaney/GC Images

In a recent interview with One America News Network, Chris Ostroushko, a 6', 51-year-old man who weighs 240 lbs., according to online court records, seemed shocked by the backlash he and his family have received.

"It's a little overwhelming and makes me second-guess even living in this country, to be honest with you, with all that's going on," Ostroushko told the news outlet.

He has described Hernandez as the aggressor and claimed that he was protecting his wife and daughter.

The Ostroushko family claimed that after the video went viral, they were doxxed and lost their jobs.

Paige Ostroushko started a GoFundMe requesting $12,000, claiming that she witnessed a "deeply triggering" verbal exchange with "an individual present" who was interviewing attendees about ICE. This "led to emotional distress and a confrontation between the individual and me," she said, claiming self-defense. She also stated that she suffered "head, neck and knee injuries." As of Wednesday afternoon, she had raised $900.

An additional GoFundMe page was started to support the family, requesting $8,000. It has so far raised $310.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Mike Lee Pushes To Stop Feds From Seizing Phone Records Without Notifying Subject in Wake of Biden Admin’s Arctic Frost Investigation

Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) is leading a legislative push to block federal prosecutors from seizing a citizen's phone records without notifying the subject of an investigation unless a judge signs off on a warrant. The effort has earned support from congressional Democrats and the White House, suggesting it may pass after spending several years stuck in Congress.

The post Mike Lee Pushes To Stop Feds From Seizing Phone Records Without Notifying Subject in Wake of Biden Admin’s Arctic Frost Investigation appeared first on .

Klansman allegedly on SPLC payroll was 'true believer' white supremacist, not reformed infiltrator



The Justice Department announced an indictment last week against the Southern Poverty Law Center for allegedly funneling millions of dollars to the very extremist groups it claimed to be fighting.

In addition to allegedly having a hand in the planning of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right event in Charlottesville, Virginia — which led to over $106.47 million in contributions in fiscal year 2024 alone — the SPLC has been credibly accused of bankrolling leaders and organizers in the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, the American Front, United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, and the National Alliance.

'The SPLC engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors.'

Eager to reassure deep-pocketed donors, SPLC CEO Bryan Fair claimed in a recent video statement that the individuals inside various extremist networks whom his organization has funded were actually "paid confidential informants" tasked with gathering "credible intelligence."

Liberals rushed to embrace and defend Fair's suggestion that the SPLC wasn't backing its purported foes but rather "paying informants to expose and prevent violence by the KKK, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups."

This narrative might have survived the month had the identities of the SPLC's "informants" remained secret.

The New York Post, however, claims to have identified at least two of the eight radicals the smear- and fearmongering racket bankrolled.

The Post reported that one of the two alleged SPLC field sources referred to as "F-unknown" in the indictment was Bradley Scott Jenkins, an imperial wizard of the United Klans of America who regarded himself as the leader of the "true Klan."

RELATED: History of violence: How the SPLC's demonization racket helped set the stage for at least 1 shooting

L-R: Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post/Getty Images; Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images

The SPLC noted in 2013 that the original United Klans of America — which was responsible for the deadly bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963 — "dissolved after it was sued by the Southern Poverty Law Center in the 1980s, but in June 2011, longtime white nationalist Bradley Jenkins of Ashland, Ala., (now the UKA’s self-proclaimed imperial wizard) registered a domain name and attempted a comeback. Jenkins ... dreams of rehabilitating the Klan’s image."

Jenkins, a virulent white supremacist until his death in 2023 at the age of 50, not only revived a group that the SPLC identified as a "serious domestic threat" but reportedly showed no signs of reform or undermining the KKK's agenda, according to his son, Noah Jenkins.

Noah Jenkins, 24, told the Post, "When I went to the rallies with him as a kid, I never saw anything that made me think he wasn’t a true believer."

The wizard's son long suspected that his father "was working with someone" but figured that "maybe he got into trouble and was threatened by [law enforcement] to become an informant to avoid jail or something."

The SPLC did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

The other individual suspected of being one of the SPLC's alleged "informants" is April Chambers of Georgia.

According to the Post, Chambers is the "F-unknown" described in the indictment as a KKK member who, along with her husband, "an Exalted Cyclops" of the Klan, sued the Peach State over the KKK's unsuccessful attempt to participate in Georgia Adopt-a-Highway program.

The indictment alleges that "during the course of the litigation, known payments were traced from the SPLC to F-unknown which exceeded $3,500.00."

Chambers, who did not respond to the Post's request for comment, now apparently runs a home cleaning and handyman service.

FBI Director Kash Patel recently stated, "The SPLC engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, funded the very hate groups they claim to oppose, and then hid their operations from the public through shell companies and fake entities."

The SPLC has been charged with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Schumer rushes to defend the SPLC after it was EXPOSED for apparently funding racist extremism



The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that a grand jury in Alabama returned an indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering.

Democrats are by now no doubt accustomed to hearing that many of the activists driving their agenda on the left are crooked; however, the SPLC is not merely accused of corruption.

'It should send a chill down the spine of every American.'

Rather, it has been credibly accused of bankrolling leaders and organizers in the very extremist groups it claimed to be fighting — including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, the American Front, United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America, and the National Alliance — as well as having a hand in the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence," stated acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Despite this alleged betrayal of donors and fellow travelers alike, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democrat operatives have rallied to the hate racket's defense.

Schumer said Wednesday on the floor of the U.S. Senate that the "deeply disturbing charges" brought against the SPLC "should send a chill down the spine of every American who cares about free expression and the rule of law in the Justice Department. It should send a chill down the spine of every American who cares about civil liberties and the fight against violent extremism."

RELATED: History of violence: How the SPLC's demonization racket helped set the stage for at least 1 shooting

L-R: Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post/Getty Images; Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images

Contrary to Schumer's suggestion, Americans keen on fighting violent extremism might be delighted to learn that the Justice Department has targeted an alleged financial crutch holding up violent bigots across the country.

The indictment against the SPLC alleges that between 2014 and 2023, the organization — which raked in over $106.47 million in contributions in fiscal year 2024 alone — "secretly funneled more than $3 million in SPLC funds to [field sources] who were associated with various violent extremist groups."

"Let's be clear what this case is ... really about," said Schumer. "It has nothing to do with alleged wire fraud or with the Southern Poverty Law Center somehow working in coordination with the KKK. That's ridiculous on its face. It doesn't pass the laugh test."

'This is core to counter-extremism work.'

Schumer claimed that the case against the SPLC is ultimately about President Donald Trump turning the DOJ into the "Department of Vengeance — his own attack dog."

The deeply unpopular Democrat suggested further that this case demonstrates that the administration is targeting opponents of "white supremacy" and "turning what America is all about inside out."

Schumer was hardly the only Democrat associate to dismiss the possibility that the SPLC was keeping the illusion of formidable hatred alive in order to continue bilking deep-pocketed donors.

RELATED: SPLC indictment BOMBSHELL: Charlottesville violence allegedly was a leftist-funded 'false flag'

Acting AG Todd Blanche. Mandel NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Norman Eisen, a Democrat operative who served as special counsel to former President Barack Obama, suggested in a joint statement with Richard Painter — former associate counsel to former President George W. Bush — and Virginia Canter — former associate counsel to former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — that the SPLC wasn't bankrolling its purported foes but rather "paying informants to expose and prevent violence by the KKK, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups."

"This is core to counter-extremism work, and it’s exactly what the DOJ and FBI should be doing — not attacking legendary civil rights organizations," wrote the trio.

"SPLC is ideologically opposed to hate groups and hate crimes. We stand with SPLC and will support them in every way."

Maya Wiley, CEO of the D.C.-based liberal organization Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, characterized the effort to hold the SPLC to account as retaliation over the liberal hate racket's alleged work protecting people from hatred.

"What is happening to civil rights organizations right now is the most coordinated assault on our sector since COINTELPRO," said Wiley.

"In order to have absolute power, [the Trump administration] must dismantle our rights. And that’s why they’re coming after us."

'They have made no secret of who they want to protect.'

"The Southern Poverty Law Center has spent decades doing that work, and we stand with them," added Wiley, who previously served as counsel to Democrat New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The American Constitution Society, a liberal activist group that has received funding from the Tides Nexus and George Soros' Open Society Foundations, joined the gaslighting campaign, framing the indictment as an attack by the administration motivated by a difference of opinion on policy and politics.

"This is a clear abuse of power," stated the ACS. "The American Constitution Society stands in solidarity with SPLC and all of our partners working to uphold the rule of law, strengthen our democratic legitimacy, and realize the promise of equality for all."

SPLC CEO Bryan Fair said in a video statement this week, "For 55 years, the Southern Poverty Law Center has stood as a beacon of hope, fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multiracial democracy where we can all live and thrive."

"We are therefore unsurprised to be the latest organization targeted by this administration," continued Fair. "They have made no secret of who they want to protect and who they want to destroy."

Fair suggested that the field sources referred to in the indictment were "paid confidential informants" tasked with gathering "credible intelligence on extremely violent groups." He said the SPLC no longer works with such informants.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!